In preparation for v2.3, I'm testing out the various new gameplay features and improvements. And what better way to do that than to put myself up against 9 random civilizations from the Steam workshop...

The land of toads

My aquatic race has risen to the dominant species of the planet Toadling. Now, we are going to explore the galaxy...

I have no idea what I'll encounter

The planet Toadling in the year 2242.

First move is to build a Central bank and a Shipyard. That's because Toadling has two special resources that lend themselves to wealth generation.

First Contact

Ah the Vulcans

The First planet

Yea, I want that Bio replicator component.

This shall become my research world.

My first ideology choice

Free constructors!

My First War

To ensure I can get the other planet in the Ribbit system, the Vulcan colony ship had to be destroyed. It is turn 7.

My first starbase

Each asteroid provides +1 to raw production of a planet (by default, my capital world starts with 2 to give you how big a deal this is). So getting an early starbase around some asteroids and mining them is a huge.

My second starbase

Elerium deposit is now mine! Elerium is used for energy weapons like lasers.

My first citizen

Every 10 turns a citizen is born.

I train him as an Administrator so that I can hopefully get a third colony.

My third colony

And sure enough, on week 10, my colony ship reaches Leaper. This time, we will take the benevolent path.

This planet will become my manufacturing planet

I have, I believe, a pretty unbeatable start!

Technology strategy

My home world is really good for wealth generation. So I am going to go and get Xeno Commerce early.

Xeno Commerce gives me access to Market Centers.

Which, when placed around the Central bank that was placed on top of a gold deposit, will make this planet rich! Richer than astronauts!

More aliens

I...have no idea who this is.

Oh dear...god.

Not sure who this is.

Not..sure...Mech race?

Oh I'm sure they'll be friendly...

These seem familiar...

The wild East

If the AI "cheated" and knew where the planets were, it would definitely have gone after these. Sigh.

The United Planets meets

War without consequences

The Vulcans have no wish to fight us. Peace in our time.

Trading

My Fleet

Thanks to the community, nearly every imaginable hull design is out there. The Little tiny Frogs, however, choose the Grasshopper. Not easy to be green..or to make a ship that looks cool and neon green.

I don't like you

They are..direct

Strategy matters

Take a close look at my home planet. I have focused on wealth generation which is now generating 66bc per turn. The default would have been around 14 if I hadn't strategically placed my planetary improvements. That's a 5X difference. This is a part of the game that many new players don't recognize as being a big deal.

Over on Ribbit, I have sent two scientists there to help with it along with carefully placing research buildings. It's not about how many planets you have, it's how you use them. Some people coming from the base game tried to play the "colony spam" game. It didn't end well. It's a fine balance between the quality of your worlds and quantity.

The First REAL war

Ok, I should probably find out who these guys are...

The Etherian Kingdom declared war. Is that She-Rah?

It's odd they picked me. They have a relatively weak military...

Except, crap. They are allied with the Vol who are the top military power in the game.

So I design the "Dart" class ship. Now, I only put a single Disruptor bank on it (I've been busy researching better weapons) because I only have 5 elerium resources.

The Vol have not yet declared war but it's only a matter of time.

Fortunately, the Vol are really far away.

The Etherians are tending to focus on missile weapons which means I'll want to get some counters to that if this war is going to last awhile.

The first battle

This won't even be close. The Etherians are just too primitive.

Which isn't to say that their primitive missiles can't damage my first generation fighters (the Grass Hoppers)

But they're no match for the Darts

Not even close

The weak fleets of the Etherians are no match.

I will admit this, their hull technology is better than mine. But their weapons are pathetic.

If I can destroy them before their ally gets involved, I may have a chance.

The only thing saving me is that the Vol are locked in a war with the Predator civilization (Yautja).

My invasion fleet is on the way. In Galactic Civilizations, a planet's orbiting defenses must first be destroyed. Then you can land legions to try to conquer the planet.

I'm not evil!

The first planet goes down with almost no loss of life (well, my life. Lots of them died).

Eventually we reach the Etherian homeworld.

This planet has ten full legions (a massive defense).

The first wave of invading troops is defeated

Second wave is landing on the outskirts of the capital to destroy as much infrastructure as possible.

Still a defeat but they are crippled.

The Etherian become a protectorate of the Vol. How fitting.

Vulcan scum

The Klingons have an idea.

Yes. I agree.

Consolidation.

The minor powers are being absorbed.

The Showdown

So at this stage, you're really entering the main event. There's only 4 civs left (Jar Jar didn't survive). From an engineering standpoint, the area I have a real hard time with is dealing with transports. Transports are very precious and the AI has to handle them very delicately. Too conservative and the AI never invades. Too aggressive and it loses valuable legions to destruction.

It is also very challenging to decide how big a fleet the AI needs to build before heading out. Too small and the ships get picked off piece meal. Too big and the AI can't respond to opportunities.

Down to 3. Everyone hates each other.

Down to 2.

Not looking good for the Frogs

The War to End All Wars

The battles were becoming bigger

My citizens were very..diverse

From here the final war would begin. But, that would have to wait until another day.